Viewing page 81 of 99

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

she suddenly wandered over to my chair and began a conversation. I don't remember what she said but I do think that I was concerned that I'd annoyed her and I tried to get that straightened out. But apparently I hadn't because to my great surprise, she suggested that maybe I'd like to buy her a beer after she got through her job. She wasn't quite as blunt about it as this but it was clear enough. I wasn't keen about it but I felt that I'd sort of stuck my neck out so I agreed. Since she had to change her uniform, we walked to her apartment, which was only a block from the hotel and where she lived with her sister. But the upshot of the affair was that we had the beer there instead of going out, which suited me better, we danced a couple of times to the radio, her sister then came home, the three of us talked a bit and then I returned to the hotel. The embellishments in the story were strictly out of my imagination. However, as I read the story now, I think it was pretty good for a rank amateur. I don't recall ever even talking to this girl again. I seldom went to Schenectady for a number of years after this and when I did begin going there again, I'd joined the Mohawk Club and stayed there. In the meantime, I should imagine my friend married because she had a good deal on the ball.

To while away the time in other ways, I believe I went to Albany a time or two where I enjoyed eating at Keeler's and then wandering along the riverfront near the D & H station. Also I liked to do train watching in the evening in the New York Central station over there. The Van Curler is adjacent to the old aristocratic section of Schenectady and I enjoyed taking walks in the residential area nearby where the old homes were fascinating. And sometimes I'd spend time surveying the Mohawk River vicinity near the hotel, occasionally crossing the new bridge to the Scotia side. But all in all, I did not enjoy this assignment and was glad when it was over. I felt that I was somehow out of tune with the conditions of my life and I was anxious to get back on the beam again. As I rode the train toward home that October afternoon, the job at last completed, and I looked out the window at the lovely valley as we sped along the riverside and saw the flaming hills flung along the sky, I felt that life was meant to be good but that I had a few fences to mend before I could feel I was well back on the track again.

It was just about this time that Doris died and I learned of it from someone in Syracuse. As I have said, this news saddened me very deeply. It was the crowning blow that made 1933 an unhappy year to look back upon. And yet, as I have said also, we were still young and resilient and we were able to snap back and face up to things. And fortunately, 1933 was the bottom for just about everything. From then on, things improved, we could look forward again to a more normal progression in our affairs, and if patient and hard-working, to a far more affluent and satisfactory future.

Transcription Notes:
Reviewed - moved 'ment,' to previous page as per instructions